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Creating a Character
When creating an ESPER character, you may choose to become anything you want. Characters in the ESPER world are everyday people living in our modern world, only with the addition of a real supernatural realm. Characters may be ordinary, highly trained fighters, widely-studied magicians, psychics, or any other number of things. Following are the steps required to make an ESPER character: Step One: Planning your Character This is the stage where you come up with exactly what you want your character to be. Is he a big, hulking fighter who would sooner bash in a monster's face than listen to anything it has to say, or a frail mage who casts spells to strengthen her friends? Once you have the idea down, let your GM know what you want to make and he can help you through the process. Character creation in the ESPER universe is a very social process, and the more you work with others during the character creation stage, the closer your characters will be during gameplay, and the better storylines the GM can come up with to suit your character's specific needs, strengths, and weaknesses. Step Two: Assign Attributes There are twelve main attributes. These are Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Reflexes, Fortitude, Intellect, Willpower, Faith, Focus, Psyche, Luck, and Willpower. These attributes are assigned by the player rather than being rolled on. Each attribute starts at 45, which is completely average across the board. This gives you 540 points to distribute if all the attributes were at zero. You can either start from scratch and distribute all 540 points, or start with everything at 45 and take from one attribute to give to another. Whichever method is best and easiest for the individual player is suggested. At this stage, no attribute can go lower than 10 or higher than 90. Step Three: Advantages and Disadvantages Every character has a list of advantages and disadvantages that fleshes the character out and makes him more realistic to play. Later on, we'll also be selecting Skills, which along with Advantages cost Skill Points. Every character starts with 100 Skill Points to spend, and they may purchase Skills or Advantages with them, or they can buy Skill Points by taking Disadvantages. Step Four: Skills In order to use Skills, you must purchase "ranks" in them. A rank is a measure of how skilled your character is at performing the action in question, and operates like a bonus of +5 per rank to a roll on the base attribute of that skill. If, for example, a character has a Dexterity of 45, and 3 ranks in Handguns (3 ranks = +15), they would roll against a 60 when firing handguns (45+15=60). To purchase skills, a player must use his 100 Skill Points, which can be reduced by purchsing Advantages or increased by trading Disadvantages. To purchase Skills, the player must spend an equal number of skill points for each rank they want to buy. For example, to purchase a skill at rank one, they must spend 1 skill point. To purchase the next level in the skill, they must spend two more points, and then to purchase the next rank, they must spend 3 more. Thus, in order to purchase a brand new skill at rank 5, a player must spend 15 skill points (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15). A beginning character cannot purchase any skills higher than rank 5. There are no limits to the number of skills may take. Step Five: Fleshing Out Your Character One of the final steps is to make the character an actual living, breathing person. This is done by coming up with their personal information (name, age, sex, height, weight, race), a backstory for them, and their current place in life, including where they live, what they do for a living, their family, etc.. Let the GM know everything about your character so he can start working on incorporating it into his campaigns in order to give you the best, most personal play experience possible. Step Six: Gearing Up Unlike in most other role-playing games, you are allowed to make your character exactly the way you want your character to be. If you want to start with a huge mansion with a Rolls Royce, that is fine: you don't have a set amount of money you have to spend in order to purchase everything your character might own. Just remember: if you took the Poor Disadvantage, you aren't going to own a yacht (unless you live on it and it's the only possession you own!). The GM and players should spend some time figuring out the character's belongings. Just make sure the GM approves of what you want your character to have. He may not be happy if you want to start the game with a special talisman that immediately destroys all creatures you come into contact with! Step Seven: Encumbrance and Carrying Capacity A character may carry 5 times their Strength attribute in pounds, so if the character has 45 Strength, they may carry 225 pounds. This is not a limit as to how much they can carry on their person at any one time, but how much they can lift with both arms and still be able to move around with. Of course, a good GM isn't going to let a character at his max encumbrance perform many actions... expecially not ones that require the use of hands, or move very quickly. The character's limit as to how many possessions he can have on him at once is limited to where the items are being stored, and how large and heavy they are. There is no calculation to help you find this limit: it's based entirely on what seems realistic and common sense. Step Eight: Spells and Psionics A magician has no limits regarding the types of magick he knows how to use, but he does have a limit on the number of spell effects he can know at any one time. This limitation is equal to ten percent of the character's Intellect. For example, if he has an Intellect of 60, he may recall up to 6 spell effects at any given time. If he wants to learn a new spell effect, he must obtain a spellbook that contains the effect and replace one of his already-known spell effects with it, or cast the effect directly out of the book. For every five ranks he has in any magickal skill, the maximum number of effects he can know goes up by one. The magician character should go through the list of spell effects now and choose the ones he wants to know. Note that some types of magick, like Incantation and Devotional Magick, allow a character to be more free in the types of spells he can cast, ignoring the Spell Effect listings for a more custom effect. If the character has the Psionics characteristic, he may use any one type of Psi per rank in Psionics. Thus, if he has two ranks in Psionics, he may, for example, be Telekinetic and a Telepath. This cannot ever be changed or replaced, but the Psionicist will be able to use his psi to manipulate virtually anything within his sphere of influence in any way he can imagine. The types of Psi the character knows should be chosen at character creation, carefully, since they cannot be changed later. Optional Step: Walks of Life Walks of Life is an optional rule that allows for more intimate personalization of the character, and also allows slightly better characters to be made by allowing for additional bonuses to attributes and skills. Once the character sheet has been prepared completely, the player creating the character will begin to go through four specific times in his character's life for the GM: Childhood, Adolescence, Young Adulthood, and Adulthood. For each, he will recount some of the main events of his life, as though telling the story of his character to the GM. For each, the GM will take the information given by the player about his character and will hand out a series of bonuses and penalties. The following list shows the maximum bonuses and penalties that can be handed out. The GM must assign specific bonuses, so where the listing says "one rank for up to two skills," the GM must assign them specifically: for example, "you get plus one to Pugilism for having been in so many fights as a kid," or "You get plus one to any firearm skill for having practiced so much every day." The GM does NOT have to give out all the maximum bonuses, and if he sees fit does not have to give any bonuses at all. Note that the word “rank” indicates a full rank of a skill, not just a point toward such a skill. For example, if your character has a skill at rank 3, and the GM gives you a rank in that skill, it gives you the skill at rank four, not one point toward the four needed to upgrade. The player may also use the ranks to buy new skills, as long as the GM allows it. The GM may even give the character special possessions if he sees fit.